Bob Sacks is an avid Publishing futurist, electrifying the media and marketing industry with the good and bad news about what he calls “El-CID” or Electronically Coordinated Information Distribution. This BLOG will follow the trends of Publishing as it continues to evolve.

New Magazines: The numbers for the first trimester

Samir Husni (Blog)

Flower

is but one of 202 magazines that were born in the first trimester of 2007. Two trends appear to go hand in hand for the first four months of 2007 when it comes to new magazine launches: the first is the drop in the number of special issues and one time publications (almost 33% drop from last year); and the second is the drop of the number of magazines with a frequency of four times or higher (almost 20% drop from last year). As I mentioned earlier on this blog, this is NOT an unnatural occurrence in the field of magazine publishing. Every few years we see a market correction and the numbers drop. It is not new. This market correction has happened every few years, both before and after the birth of the internet. However, the silver lining in all of this is that the number of magazines with four times frequency or more is closing the gap with the numbers of the specials and one-time titles. So, here goes the numbers (at least for now as we keep on updating the numbers as we receive titles we've missed) for this year compared to the numbers of last year. In the first trimester (Jan. through April 2007) at least 202 new magazines were launched with the following frequencies: Four times or more, 79 titles (100 in 2006), Specials, 104 titles (155 in 2006), Annuals, 12 titles (25 in 2006) and the remaining seven titles were published either two or three times a year. For a complete list of all the titles of the first trimester click here.

For years I have been telling my students and my clients that the Visual Impact in Print (the VIP factor) depends on marrying the photography with the typography to create a visual impact that will stop you and make you pick up the magazine. Well, today while scanning the newsstands I found a great example of how not to achieve that impact. In fact it was just the opposite. The cover of the new special from Cook's Illustraded magazine on Summer Grilling & Entertaining stopped me in my tracks for the complete wrong reason. Summer grilling screams the name and berry pie screams the picture . . .My brain kept showing me images of a grill and barbecue and my eyes kept showing me a delicious cold pie ready to eat . . . confused by the mixed messages I started to walk away, but then I remembered it is a first issue that I need to add to my collection plus, I thought, it will make a great blog on what NOT to do with your magazine cover. Well check the cover for yourself. It is grilling below this blog . . .

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About Me

a veteran of the printing/publishing industry since 1970, Bob Sacks was always an innovator. Even back in the 70s he followed a more creative path than usual. He started his career where some people end -- with the founding of his own weekly newspaper in the metro New York area.
After several years in the alternative press publishing newspapers in New York and Tucson, Az., he went on to become one of the founding fathers of High Times Magazine.
Since then Bob has held positions that include Publisher, Editor, Freelance Writer, Director of Manufacturing and Distribution, Senior Sales Manager, Circulator, Chief of Operations, Pressman, Cameraman, Lecturer, and Developer of web site companies.
Bob’s resume lists directorships at such prestigious companies as McCall's, Time Inc, New York Times Magazine Group, International Paper, Ziff-Davis, CMP, and Bill Communications (VNU).